Is it time to outlaw food-based biofuels?

[derby378]

I'm beginning to think that a truly progressive approach to renewable energy sources means outlawing the production and use of corn-based fuels of any kind.

Mexican farmers are burning their agava fields to plant more corn, driving up the price of tequila. German farmers are growing less barley and more corn for biofuels, meaning beer prices in Germany have shot up 40%.

Now, if you don't drink alcohol of any kind, you probably couldn't care less. Fewer drunken hooligans on the streets causing trouble? Okay, you've got a valid point. Except...

What happens when farmers start cutting down on wheat, rye, and soybean production because they think they can make more profit off of corn for biofuels?

What is this going to do to the Amazon rainforests, already under attack?

The folly of corn-based ethanol fuel needs to come to a stop, and now. We have far too many starving people across the world to waste precious food resources to push someone's SUV around town.

[Double T]

1. Bio fuels are an alternative to fossil fuel dependency BUT...........

it does little or nothing for the emissions problem leading to climate change and global warming. Food prices along with transportation fuel prices will BOTH continue upward.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1909827.ece

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

2. Yes, famine may be an unfortunate consequence of bio-fuels.

If I sell a bushel of corn for a certain price, it goes to tortillas.
If I sell at three times that price, it goes to fuel.

What's a poor farmer to do??? Ok, what's a huge corporate farming entity to do???

[Bonhomme Richard]

3. One of the guys in my band is a farmer and..............

he was telling me that the price of feed corn is now driving the successful farmers ( the guys that did everything right) out of the business. He is constantly going to farm auctions and said things are going to get very interesting.

[JCMach1]

4. Switch to Switch grass!

[LanternWaste]

5. No, I certainly don't think it needs to be outlawed.

No, I certainly don't think it needs to be outlawed. I'm not under the impression that bio-fuels are meant to be the only alternative, merely one of many.

Additionally, when the farmers cut production wheat, rye, et.al., won't the market demand simply raise the prices on those products to the point in which they are a competitive crop once again?

Although I realize that there are many people in this world who are starving, my own (albeit limited) research into this illustrates that there is indeed more than enough food being grown and processed throughout the world-- it's the distribution that is falling short in providing that to the people in need.

[Ganja Ninja]

6. I don't know if that's a solution.

If you outlaw food based ethanol they'll just convert to growing non-food crops on the same land. That doesn't help world starvation either.

The increase in food prices may well be only temporary until farmers catch up with demand.

[greenissexy]

7. And you've found his real agenda...

for pushing biofuels. Now SUV's will more directly kill people through starvation rather than indirectly through global climate change.